Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) have been the subject of a considerable amount of research in recent years because of their potential for use in a wide variety of electroluminescent devices. For instance, a single OLED can be used as a discrete light emitting device or an array of OLEDs can be used in lighting applications or flat-panel applications such as flexible displays. However, OLED displays and, in particular, the electrodes and organic layers of individual OLEDs, may be susceptible to degradation resulting from interaction with oxygen and moisture. Polymeric materials used as substrates in flexible OLED displays may be permeable to oxygen and moisture and, therefore, are not effective for sealing displays and preventing the degradation of the OLED devices. Metal foils offer a suitable alternative to polymeric materials as some metal foils may be impermeable to both oxygen and moisture. However, the optical properties of the metal foils, specifically the transparency or lack of transparency of the metal foils, make the foils unsuitable for use in conjunction with OLED display devices.
Glass may be a suitable alternative to both polymeric materials and metal foils for use in conjunction with OLED displays. Glass provides the desired optical transparency while being impermeable to moisture and oxygen. As such, glass may be suitable to form a hermetic seal around OLEDs in a display. However, glass is not generally a flexible material, except when the glass is ultra-thin and existing methods for producing ultra-thin glass are not suitable for large volume, commercial production.
Accordingly, a need exists for alternative methods and systems for producing thin, continuous sheets of glass.